


Companionate

by Pen37



Series: The Actual Human Disaster, Hufflepuff, Adventure Archaeologist and the Missing Brother [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Video Game)
Genre: And who will have been dating for more than a decade before they even realize it, Asexual Charlie Weasley, Demiromantic main character, F/M, Friends to friends who happen to be in love, Idiots in Love, Quiddich, Reader as Viewpoint Character, Seriously committed platonic relationship, all the Charlie Weasley headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 14:07:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18345224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pen37/pseuds/Pen37
Summary: Charlie Weasley doesn’t see the point in getting worked up over girls. Not when there’s quiddich and looking for that dragon he just knows has got to be hiding in the Forbidden Forest.That’s ok. You’re too busy looking for the cursed vaults to get too worked up over blokes, anyway.Or: how two clueless idiots fall in love and then take ten years to figure it out.





	Companionate

companionate - adj: harmoniously suited

1\. 

Charlie Weasley never meant to fall for you. In fourth year when the other blokes were suddenly tongue tied around girls (or boys), he just didn’t see the point of it. After all, there were so many other things that needed his attention.

Like quiddich. Or dragons.

“I wonder if we could play quiddich with dragons?” You asked him one day during care of Magical Creatures. He paused right in the middle of searching for fire crab feed to stare at you.

You have a reputation. The half-mad sister of the mad-as-a-hatter Jacob (Y/L/N). Your bizarre sense of humor and penchant for trouble don’t help.

But Bill says you’re an alright sort, even if you are as obsessed with the cursed vaults as Charlie is with dragons.

But when he thinks on it, adding dragons to quidditch would actually be really brilliant. Even if the match would be extremely short and rather deadly.

“It would certainly make it more exciting,” he says.

He thinks the matter is dropped, until History of Magic, when you pass him a note. It had a set of silly rules for “Dragon Quidditch.”

He falls a little in love with you then.

2\. 

“Oi Weasley! Tell that Hufflepuff spy to shove off!” Billingsley snaps at him.

Charlie shakes the rain off of his quidditch goggles and looks down at the stands. It’s the kind of wet, miserable Scottish winter day where even he doesn’t want to be out. (What was he thinking, scheduling practice tonight?) So he’s surprised to see a lone person sitting there.

Whomever it is huddled under a brolly spell, swaddled in a black-and-gold quilt that was probably filched out of the Hufflepuff dorms.

Charlie lands, shaking off the rain, and is surprised to see you sitting there, a muggle book in your hand. (“King Solomon’s Mines.” Not the same one, he thinks, that you were reading the last time he defended you from Merula.)

Suddenly unsure of himself, he scratches the back of his neck. “Bit cold for outdoor reading, yeah?”

You shrug. “I just needed to get out of my head for a while. There’s nothing to do in the castle, and I was going a bit stir crazy.” Your breath steams in the chilly air.

Charlie realizes that the only time he ever sees you sitting still is when you’re absorbed in one of the cheap muggle paperbacks your Mum sends you. You’re like a perpetual motion machine. It’s as if you’re trying to outrun your demons.

He hopes he never sees a day where they catch you.

He blames it on the cold when he shivers.

“How about I walk you back once practice is over, yeah?” He scuffs his toe on the stands. “You can tell me about this one.”

You raise one eyebrow. “Yeah alright. If you like, you can share the warming charm I put on my blanket.”

“Are you sure?” He asks. “I’m a bit soggy.”

“Sure. Besides,” Your smile turns mischievous, “I know how to sneak into the kitchens. You look like you could be doing with some hot chocolate.”

“Marry me,” Charlie jokes, completely deadpan.

“I’m afraid you’ll have to get in line behind my other suitors.” You wave to the empty stands, also completely deadpan.

If Charlie shows off his fancy flying a little more during the rest of practice, no one says anything. After all, as captain, it’s his job to set the right example for the team.

It’s not even like you’re watching, right? You have your book.

And after practice, when you say: “nice flying,” if he stands a little taller, what of it?

3\. 

“Are you thinking of applying for the Ministry’s dragon division after Hogwarts?” You ask him over sandwiches in the great hall.

Charlie doesn’t answer right away, chewing on his dinner as he mulls it over. The ministry would be the obvious choice: His dad works there, and could probably help Charlie get the placement despite the family reputation.

But ministry work, even with dragons, just doesn’t stir his blood like the idea of working with the dragon sanctuary in — “Romania. If I can get on there, I’d like to study the dragons in Romania.”

You look surprised at that. “With the way you go on about your family, I’d have thought you’d want to stay close.”

He nods in understanding. “I love my family, don’t get me wrong. But there’s so many of us. And we’re in each other’s pockets all the time. I’ve been sharing a room with Bill from the moment Mum booted me from the nursery because they needed it for Percy. I just …”

You look at him like he’s grown a second head (which would be possible, if one of the twins was pranking him). You’ve been a neglected only-child since your brother vanished. The thought of needing space is as alien to you as the thought of breathing air might be to a fish.

As Charlie wrestles his thoughts into something you might be able to understand, one of the twins flings their mash across the aisle from the Gryffindor table. It lands with a squishy sound in his hair.

He ignores their braying laughter. Getting visibly angry is only letting them win. And why get mad when he can get even?

You have your hand over your mouth, your eyes wide like saucers.

Charlie gives you a lopsided smile. “Sometimes I think it might be nice to love my family from a distance.”

You reach for your wand while twirling the index finger of your other hand in the air to signal for him to turn around. He complies, and you set his hair to rights with a cleaning spell.

“Would it help if we put flobberworms in your brothers’ beds?” You ask once he’s turned back around.

There’s a splattering sound behind him, Charlie throws another look over his shoulder, to find that you’ve cast the shield charm, protecting him from behind. He feels warmed all over from the inside, like the time he and Bill drank a flask of firewhisky out in the shed.

“Any chance That I could take you with me when I go to Romania?” Charlie asks.

4\. 

Charlie puts his head down on the table next to you in the library, hard enough to make a thumping sound. He repeats it a couple times, just to see if any brilliant thoughts shake loose.

Pince shushes him. Although he can’t see it, the old bat probably has a dirty look on her face.

“Alright there?” You run your fingers through his hair.

He lets out an inarticulate sound that could either mean “I really like that, keep doing it,” or “I just cracked my skull open and I’m too tired to scream.”

You pull the tie free from his hair, and card your fingers through the loose red locks.

“Feel free to stop anytime in the next five years or so.” His voice is muffled against the table.

Rowan and Barnaby look up from their study session across the way. Rowan lifts an eyebrow. Off your shrug, they put their heads back together and continue whatever discussion they’ve been having.

“What’s got you so down?” You ask.

He rolls his head to the side so that his cheek is pressed to the wood surface, staring at you while you continue to play with the ends of his hair. “Nothing too earth shaking.” His eyes widen as a new thought occurs to him. “Hey! You’re good at everything you try.”

“Thanks?” You feel your face heating up.

“What would you say to your team if you were a quidditch captain and you had to inspire them to victory?”

You lay your head down on the table, so that you can look him in the eyes.

“Since it’s me, and I’m rubbish at quidditch, my hypothetical team is probably hopeless. So I’d say: ‘Men, we’re going to lose today. But first, we get to kick the absolute bloody hell out of the other team!”

“If I’m ever captain of the Falmouth Falcons, I’ll remember that speech,” Charlie laughs. “So much about you is clear now.”

“Oh really?”

“For one, I know why you prefer dueling.”

“Well, dueling club also has the best uniforms. I mean: I had to polish André’s drool out of my boot leather.”

“It’s nice to know you’re not good at everything,” he says affectionately.

“You can be good at the things I’m not,” you reply. “Then we both have someone to lean on.”

The idea makes him feel like he just drank a pumpkin fizz: all bubbly inside. “Sounds like a deal to me.”

5\. 

You’re not exactly sure when you fell for Charlie Weasley. It just seemed to sneak up on you.

Three years of laughing at the back of his head over his futile attempt to grow his hair each term, only for his mum to cut it all off every summer. Then suddenly he defends you from a bully, and you’re arse-over-teakettle for him.

It makes sense to you that he loves dragons. They say opposites attract. And in your mind, dragons are beings of fire and air. While Charlie is a being of earth and water: steady, calm, cool under pressure, and nurturing. His ready smile, cheeky wit, and good natured enthusiasm hiding the depths of his convictions the way sunlight sparking on the surface of a lake never reveals the water’s depth.

Your whole life, it seemed like everyone was looking to you for something. Mum wanted you to be safe, and hoped you’d find Jacob. Your friends wanted to make sure you knew what you were doing before you led them into danger. That you were confident that you wouldn’t be caught. Even that Gryffindor kid who sat behind you in charms wanted your help tutoring.

But Charlie never asked anything of you. Instead smiling and telling you: “we’ll figure it out.”

We.

For the first time since Jacob disappeared, you didn’t have to be the strong one. It was okay not to have answers. And you didn’t feel so bloody alone.

You think you fell a little in love with him then.

**Author's Note:**

> *I wrote this as an exercise in developing headcanons about Charlie. A lot of what I’ve written helped me develop MC, and her backstory. But I hadn’t given deeper thought to everyone’s favorite dragonologist.
> 
> *I’ve decided that:
> 
> 1\. He’s very tactile. He likes to hold hands. Pet his hair like a cat and watch him melt.
> 
> 2\. He’s slower to act and deliberate in his actions (in contrast to many of his siblings with their infamous Weasley tempers). He waited till fourth year to get to know MC. Meanwhile Bill pulled a Molly Weasley and adopted MC on sight.
> 
> 3\. He has depths like a well.
> 
> 4\. He loves just being around his loved ones. They don’t even have to be Interacting. Just sitting together and not talking. If he’s sitting by himself and someone just came into the room because he was there, he’d feel loved. If he has the choice to sit by himself, or in a room where a loved one is, he’ll gravitate to that room.
> 
> 5\. He feels deeply loved when someone takes an interest in him. He’ll go on and on about the things he’s passionate about (dragons, his family, quidditch ). Often to the point that the listener’s eyes will glaze over. If you know as much about dragons as him, it shows that you like him enough to pay attention. He shows how much he cares by really listening to you, even on subjects he cares nothing about.
> 
> 6\. He was only pretending to be happy that Barnaby was along for the forbidden forest adventure. Not only is Barnaby a slytherin, but he’s also not that bright. (Punch a centaur? WTF, Mate?) When Charlie was saying “just follow my lead” I headcanon that he was eye-rolling the whole time.
> 
> 7\. Charlie is also very good at compartmentalizing, which is why he and my MC don’t become an official couple until 5 years post Hogwarts. He’s put her into the friend compartment, assumed that there wasn’t even a compartment for girlfriend. And then one day he found her in a compartment labeled “platonic life partner” and said to himself “I didn’t even know I had one of those.”
> 
> *Brolly is British slang for umbrella. So a brolly spell would be that unnamed spell that they used in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Since they don’t call out an incantation, It hasn’t yet got a canon name.
> 
> *King Solomon’s Mines was a Victorian adventure novel that is old enough that it’s probably up on Project Gutenberg. It created the “lost world” genre of pulp novels. The protagonist, Allan Quatermain was the forerunner to Indiana Jones. (The book is also what tv tropes calls “fair for it’s day.” Meaning it has less of the super sketchy great white hunter/yay!Colonialism type attitudes that were baseline for Victorians at the time.) There are several movies based on the book. One staring a young Sharon Stone and Richard Chamberlin doing a bad Indiana Jones impersonation (it came out in 1985, so MC definitely saw it on summer holiday).
> 
> In the book, Quatermain is leading an expedition in search of the brother of the expedition’s financier. The missing brother was an explorer searching for King Solomon’s mines. No idea why this book resonated with MC.


End file.
